Whanganui Canoe Expedition Day 10-15

The canoe trip was fun but also a lott of work!! For two days we paddled for 8 hours so at times it was difficult to enjoy the gorgeous sceneary. When I was not to busy paddling though, I was busy pretending I was in the Lord of the Rings and kept my eyes out for Orks (yes, I am a huge loser). Every now and then I would also be caught singing the theme song...

Anyway! Here is some information about the Whanganui River (Fanganui):
With a length of 290 km, the Whanganui is the country's third-longest river. Much of the land to either side of the river's upper reaches is part of the Whanganui National Park, though the river itself is not part of the park. The Whanganui river has always been an important communication route to the central North Island, both for Māori and for settlers. It is, however, also a difficult river, with many stretches of white water and over 200 rapids. Despite this for many years it was the principal route to the interior. (we wentt over some small rapids that were really fun!...but really small)

Here is the day to day:


Day 10 Monday January 25

-5am wake up and depart city of Taupo
-Arrive at Blazing Paddles and head into the river!
-Paddled for 8 hours then camped (rained a little that night...bummer)

Day 11
-Paddled for another 8 1/2 hours until we reached a campsite
-We enjoyed the scenary and played "Guess The Actor" game and more
-Had the campsite to ourselves and chilled the rest of the night. We arrived there around 3:00.
-For dinner each night we had cooking groups of 4. We cooked over these little cooker things that were very portable. Each group planned 3 breakfasts 4 lunches and 3 dinners.

Day 12
-Tony's birthday! We got to wake up a lot later (9:00am) and had an egg breakfast
-We only had to paddle 2 hours so we took our time...it rained a little bit
-Reached the Marae (is a sacred place which served both religious and social purposes in pre-Christian Polynesian societies)
-We were greeted on the Marae by the head woman who sang a song and called us over. Everyone who camps on the site overlooking the river lined up (girls first) and shook the woman's hand and then touched noses with her. This is an old tradition to show a sign of peace.
-Relaxed and watched the sun set, bed

Day 13 1/28
-The last day on the river! Since there was a little bit of rain the day before the river was flowing faster and it only took 3 hours to finish our river trip. Luckily it ended well with the sun out! We explored this one cave filled with clay mud... it was gross/scary/but so adventerous! We then explored this other cave that had a waterfall in it and we went swimming in it-- collld water!
-Arrived to the docking station and loaded our boats into the trailer
-Drove to our second Marae for the night (we had it all to ourselves)- once again we were greeted with a song and nose "shake"
-I took a nap underneath the beautiful sun....and finally showered
-I was the cook and made some wraps for dinner
-Chilled out under the stars and then went to bed!